You are viewing a single comment's thread from:
RE: Why We're All Suicidal
In Psychology, a mere thought of wanting to kill yourself is already considered as being suicidal because it means the thought is there and it's just a trigger to actually do it that's missing.... There is no such thing as "legitimately" suicidal or if there is, it's too narrow a concept that could actually undermine mere suicidal thoughts that are honestly the seeds of the unexpected tragedy.
Actually, unfortunately, this isn't true.
Suicidal ideation is quite common, but it's a long way from thoughts to actions. While suicidal ideation is itself concerning, it doesn't make someone automatically suicidal. When we do a suicide risk assessment we look at things like mental health conditions, plans, protective factors, access to means, prior attempts, family history etc. We use all of this to determine if someone is at a risk of committing suicide ("suicidal") or simply at the step of suidical ideation.
Of course, suicidal ideation alone is enough to trigger further counseling and support, but it's not enough to say someone is suicidal. You're right that these thoughts (or "seeds" are too often overlooked) but to say everyone who's thought of the concept of suicide or getting away is suicidal is similarly dangerous. We know from quite large bodies of research, that the more we normalise suicide, the higher rates get. Teens who've been close to people who kill themselves are more likely to also kill themselves, even when we correct for mental health issues and other risk factors. When the media reports a suicide as a "successful suicide" we get much larges spikes in suicide rates than if it's simply reported aas "suicide". There are fairly complex concepts, but understanding and using them gives us more weapons in our arsenal to fight suicide and suicide attempts.
Hope that makes sense.
It does make sense, and I would say this is a matter of how we each have our own measurement of what the term really means or what being suicidal really is. Therefore, I respect and agree with your opinion but I'm still sticking to how I used the term in my article as it is based on my scale :)
Of course! :)
Thanks again for the article!
You're welcome! Follow for more :)